Sunday, February 24, 2013

Blueberry Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping…

Last night for dinner, I had the rare treat of going out to eat. I enjoying cooking, but occasionally I do like a day off. I didn’t skip on all cooking yesterday, I did make breakfast and lunch. Since I took a break from cooking, why not take a break from recipes. So I thought I would share with you a recipe from my brother, Robby.  My siblings enjoying cooking, but unlike them, though I did not take cooking classes while in school.
The recipe is actually from his seventh grade cooking class at Pine Hollow Middle School. Robby tells me “This is the recipe that started my love of cooking.” I do remember this coffee cake, it was moist full of blueberry flavor and the topping had just the right amount of sweetness to it.
This is a crowd pleaser, and on several occasions, this was made for holiday mornings or when we had out of town guest.
The recipe calls for ½ can of drained blueberries. I would suggest if you cannot canned blueberries in water to use 1 cup of fresh or frozen berries.
If you don’t care for coffee cake, you can make muffins. I would cook them for 10 to 12 minutes then check for doneness.
Another variation of this wonderful coffee cake is to pour half of the batter in the pan, add topping, and then add the remaining batter on top.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Crock-pot Ginger Pork Chops…

What would we do without our slow cookers or Crock-pots? If you do have one or do not hardly use the one you have, you are missing out. There are thousands of recipes for the slow cooker. I have two and really could use the three pot slow cooker or the real pretty All-Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker.  
When I was working full time, I used a slow cooker every day. I had a couple cookbooks, but learned the real beauty of one the slow cooker was just taking combinations of ingredients and coming up with new recipes. The recipe for day comes from the 1001 Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook written by Barbara C Jones.
I don’t think experimenting as I was, I would have crossed teriyaki sauce with tomato bisque soup. It works though in combination of the other ingredients to make a wonderful meal. I will sometimes add in sliced apples and a ¼ cup of apple cider. For other variations, you could use garlic or even orange juice.
You just have to be a bit daring and creative, use the recipe as a guidebook instead of a law book.